Compared to the CRT display and the LCD display, the plasma panel display (PDP) has a lot of outstanding features, such as, broad angular field of view, large areas, high speed of response, and colors non-distortion. The PDP can be used to produce large size displays, which is optimal to wall type TVs. Without mercury that is poisonous to human, mercury-free fluorescence lamps have significant meanings to environment protection in comparison with the common high-voltage mercury lamps and low-voltage mercury lamps. In a PDP display, the circuit and luminescent material therein may be key techniques for displaying. Selecting luminescent material is the most important techniques in displays. Accordingly, study of tricolor fluorescence powders used as luminescent materials in the PDP is essential. Recently, the most widely used tricolor fluorescence powders include red powders such as Y2O3:Eu3+ and (Y,Gd)BO3:Eu3+, green powders such as Zn2SiO4:Mn2+ and BaAl12O19:Mn2+, and blue powders such as BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+. For the commercial green powder Zn2SiO4:Mn2+, a spin forbidden (4T1→6A1) emission of the Mn2+ therein resulting in prolonging the afterglow time of the material, which is not beneficial to the display of rapidly moving images of TVs and is not suitable for TV displays. An increasing of doping concentration of the Mn2+ can shorten the afterglow time, however, the luminescence intensity of the material is reduced. So, it is necessary to develop a new, efficient green luminescent material with short afterglow time Now the studies of luminescent material of gadolinium borate M3Gd(BO3)3 (M=Ca, Sr, Ba) mainly focus on its laser characteristics when being doped in rare earth elements as a mono-crystal. In contrast, the researches of that in excitation under vacuum ultraviolet light are less. Compared to the long afterglow of the Mn2+, the Tb3+ has a characteristic emission of green light (540-545 nm), and the spin coupling of the Tb3+ has a shielding affect to the spin forbidden of the Tb3+, which endows it with shorter afterglow time and overcomes hysteresis effect.
Accordingly, to overcome the disadvantage of long afterglow time, and to meet the requirement of color displaying and green illumination, a new green luminescent material which has a short afterglow time should be developed and be applied in plasma panel display (PDP) or mercury-free fluorescence lamps.